


when all else fails, run.

by antisocialworm13



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Callum (The Dragon Prince) - Freeform, Callum - Freeform, Ezran - Freeform, Gen, Mentioned Azymondias (The Dragon Prince), Mentioned Ezran (The Dragon Prince), Rayla (The Dragon Prince) - Freeform, Rayla - Freeform, Tired Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23405926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antisocialworm13/pseuds/antisocialworm13
Summary: "It's going to be a quick trip, Rayla. There isn't anything for you to worry about." I mumble to myself. Of course it wasn't going to be a quick trip, I'm an elf going into a human town. Now I am separated from both Zym and Callum and I am hiding in an alley from humans that are trying to hunt us down. Oh wait, no, hunt me down. Let's just hope that they can get what we came here before I get caught.Cause I don't want to know what happens when I do.
Kudos: 17





	1. When all else fails, run.

**Author's Note:**

> (this takes place right before Callum and Rayla go to Xadia, between seasons 2 and 3-ish)

I hate human towns. 

Large swarms of people rushing around in open squares. Merchants hollering, kids running around, and people who just try to get into everyone else's business. And after the first time visiting one, I made it a personal goal to never have to go back again. But of course that isn't going to happen. 

"Rayla you have to understand that we need to go to a town if we are going to Xadia." Callum had said, picking up Zym. Of course that isn't something I had wanted to hear, so I obviously responded with, "Oh no, no thank you. I would much rather be on a boat than go back to a town." I said holding my hands in the air in defense. Callum almost laughs at my remark. "Hey, I need to get some food and you can always get some practice in with human Rayla." He said trying to coax me into agreeing with his idea. 

"You know what happened last time, I got caught and then we were chased out by a mob of hostile humans." I said trying to get him to really see my side. We need to get to Xadia as soon as possible, especially with the human kingdoms assembling their forces to stop us. And now that they probably have been made aware that we are coming, the townspeople will be looking for us. 

“I know, but I need to get some stuff, like food.” Uh, of course he needs his human food, like stale bread. “Alright fine, just as long as we don’t have to go to another town after this.” I said hoping that this will truly be the last time that I will be going to a human town. Or at least if I do go back to the human lands, it would be on much better terms. Like, not getting chased out and running for our lives. 

Either way, I am now running for my life. 

Having to pull up my hood to conceal my bleeding face, I wish I could have convinced Callum into not going here. But I can’t do anything about that now. I hear the thunder of footsteps outside of the alleyway. Hugging the wall, I slide back farther into the darkness. With the rumble of shouts from the growing mob, my thoughts continue to race. 

I don’t even know how this could have happened, but they saw Zym. He must have slipped out of Callum’s bag, and when everyone saw… I tried to prevent them from getting him. But there were so many people, and I refused to take out my blades. Instead I grabbed Zym and tried to force ourselves out of the crowd. But too many people pushed back, trying to get the Dragon Price away from me. 

And from all of that pulling and shoving the hood of the cloak fell off, leaving a clear sight of my horns. “It’s an elf! An elf is with the dragon!” This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I can feel Zym’s whimpering in my arms. It almost makes me feel more scared than the berating shouts of the dozens and dozens of hostile humans. 

“Callum!” I shout amidst the chaos of the crowd. Before I could try to look in the crowd for him, a blunt kick to the back of my leg and an ungraceful shove, sends me straight down to the ground. Hitting the cobble stone streets knees first, I keep a tight grasp on Zym. Thoughts shoot into my head, more disorienting than the actual physical abrasions. But with every punch and tug I pull Zym tighter towards me. 

“Aspiro!” I hear in the fading distance. The violent wind blew almost all the hostile humans away. But being the victim of that hostile crowd, the wind also carried both me and Zym across the town square. Being on the other end of that spell was not fun, the sudden sense of being weightless felt almost as horrible as the sudden slam into the hard ground. Keeping a tight hold on Zym in the air, hitting my head on the ground caused me to finally let go. I immediately tried to get up off the ground. 

But with my vision swimming I couldn’t see if Zym got away or where Callum is. I placed a hand on my throbbing head, but when I pull away, red stains my hand. I ignore the injury at the moment and try to focus on gaining awareness of my surroundings. But with my vision beginning to clear, I can tell that the crowd is starting to reform…around me.  
“Hey elf! Where’s the vermin?” Some random man asked. He obviously didn’t look like the brightest type, but I would have expected him to have the decency to call Zym a dragon. Before I could respond, or even get off the ground, the man got closer. 

“Hey, I’m speaking to you.” I can’t deal with this right now. I need to go find Callum and Zym, and get out of here. So rather than answering, I use all of my energy to land a swift kick to the man’s chest and bolt out of there.  
But when I hear the man shouting from behind me, I know that there will be more humans coming now that I did that. I take quick, but unsteady steps, trying to get away from the growing wave of humans. I run through the streets of the town, trying to get away from the mob, hoping that Callum had found Zym and got away from here. 

I have to take a second to lean up against a wall of a building, wishing that I could have gotten anything else besides a head injury. Or at least anything that would have jeopardized my chances of escape. But now I am trying to step away from a wall that I am currently using to support all my weight on and this cut on my head is bleeding way more than I want it to. 

And it takes everything in me to just keep running.


	2. Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to be in a human town, and now I am stuck injured and alone...or so I thought.

I slide down the side of the wall, closing my eyes after the roaring sound of the crowd dissipates. How did Callum convince me to come here again? And where is he? I pull the hood farther over my head and I rest my forehead on my knees. I just hope that he was able to get to Zym before the people in the square. I take in a breath, trying not to let my thoughts take over. I need to try to find Callum and we need to get out of here. 

I try to get up quickly, but once I do, the ground starts to move from beneath me. So just as soon as I stand up, I have to lean up against the wall for support. I look down at the cobble stone ground, but when I try to focus, all I see are blurry blocks of grey. The more I strain my eyes, the more my head starts to hurt. 

I bring a hand to my forehead but once I do, it meets something warm and sticky. I jerk my hand off my head, and without my eyes even focusing, I knew that it was blood. I guess I hit my head harder than I thought. I can’t worry about this right now. I lean against the wall, keeping my bloodied hand close to my chest and my head down. But with each step, the nausea keeps getting worse. 

“Hey are you okay?” 

My head snaps up and all breath is knocked out of my lungs. It is a child. A human child. A young boy garbed in commoners clothes. Concern is written on his face, but it is different from the concern the concern that washes mine. I try to take a step back, but walking backwards is almost worse than trying to go forward. So as the kid speeds up to me, I stumble back and fall. 

In my quick attempt to grab the wall before I hit the ground, I create a bloody smear arching all the way down to the dank cobble. But that doesn’t stop the kid from sitting down on the ground, right next to my side. “You have a boo-boo” He lifts a small hand towards my head, as tears start to wet his eyes. But I hold up a hand in front of me.

“I’m fine,” I say trying to prevent the small child from getting any closer. But when I hold up my hand, he not only sees the blood he sees my four fingers. The small child now is the one that moves back. He didn’t know that I was an elf. “Hey, hey, hey it’s okay I’m not going to hurt you” I plead, hoping that he doesn’t go off running, telling everyone in the town where I am. 

But the response that that the human child gave was not one that I was expecting. “It’s a big boo-boo.” He was more genuinely afraid for me, than of me. But it didn’t look like he was going to run off and start screaming. “It’s okay, I will be fine.” I try to reassure him, and myself. I slowly get back up, putting my weight against the wall. 

I don’t know how long I have been hiding in the alleyway. And I need to make sure that Callum and Zym are okay. But when I get to the end of the alleyway and into the open street, I realize that the kid is still following me. A concerned face is drawn on, with tears still pin pricked in his eyes. “Aren’t go going to go back to your family?” I ask, trying not to attract any unwanted attention. 

There was a silence in the alley from the kid. “Are you okay?” I ask, turning around. The kid is starting to look more and more upset, and the last thing I want is for him to start crying. Just imagine, an adult human coming into an alley way and seeing a crying child right next to a bloody elf. Yeah, that wouldn’t go down well. 

It takes me a moment but I realize why he hasn’t gone off yet. “You’re lost aren’t you?” I ask, my accent starting to sound kind of sluggish. The little boy’s eyes light up with both sadness and consolation. But instead of answering, he just nods and moves a little bit closer towards me. “Well, I am lost too.” I say trying to fill the air. “And how about we help each other, yeah?” I say hoping that he agrees. 

A weak smile grows on his face, “Thank you.” He says in a small voice. And I end up reciprocating the same smile, just by seeing the happiness that it brought. I take a breath in, and try to listen to see if there were anyone in the streets. And when I think that the coast is clear, I sprint across the street and into the next alleyway. And of course, the kid follows. 

But as I get into the other side of the street, my vision starts to tunnel. And yet again, I stumble onto the ground of the dark alleyway. With my back against the dirty brick wall, yet again, the kid starts to talk to me. But with my vision tunneling and my head throbbing, I can’t really process what he is saying. “-ou okay?” He continues to ask frantically. 

It takes a moment for me to respond, because my vision is continuing to black out, just hanging in on the verge of consciousness. “Please.” The kid says, begging for a response. But when I try to respond, my body feels sluggish and I feel like I am going to throw up at the same time. 

The image of the little boy, with tears rolling down his cheeks, begins to go in and out of focus. I wish I could console him, or at least tell him that I am okay. But I knew that we both needed help, and so I need him to find that help. Before I could escape my throbbing head and tunneling vision, I was able to respond. 

“Find Callum.”


	3. Callum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Callum's POV

“Aspiro!” 

I shout, being on the outskirts of the mob. With the twisting of air and magic expelling from my lungs, a new sense of panic revels itself in my mind. Where are Rayla and Zim, are they okay, what is happening? Maybe I should have listened to Rayla, but I don’t even know how thing could have gone so wrong so quickly. 

The blast of magic forces the crowd to disperse. But with my more frantic emotion, the spell doesn’t just get everyone’s attention, it literally blows everyone away. And it only takes moments to realize that I was the source of the disruption, the distraction. 

“Get the mage, he’s with the elf!” 

One of the barley townsfolk announce. And just as they were quick to surround Rayla, they charged at me like hellfire. I immediately turn around and bolt. I don’t take my time dashing through the streets as I hear the growing sound of the thundering mob behind me. As long as they get away from Rayla and Zym. As long as I could take their attention from them and put it on me. 

I don’t have time to form a plan, there is no time to do anything but get away. If only we could have been more careful. The thoughts in my head bounce around as fast as my heart rate is. I take a sharp turn, hoping to lose some of the crowed, cause after a couple minutes of sprinting away from the town square is starting to really drain my energy. The whole reason for coming here was to get food. And now I am hungry and exhausted. 

But soon enough, after several sharp turns and hiding behind crates and other supplies, I lost the mob. And I also lose the location as to where the town square is. I rest my head, hunkered down in between store crates in a back alleyway. I know I can’t say here long, but I really wish I didn’t have to risk the chance of being caught by the townspeople.

Also being wedged between two crates is not a comfortable experience. 

“Oh! Hello there!” Someone says, standing over me. I immediately stand up, trying not to act suspicious, or like I was being chased by a mob of angry townspeople just 5 minutes ago. “Uh, hi?” I say, trying not to be more awkward. Now that I’m standing, I can get a better look at the person who had, without shame, called me out on my poor hiding spot.   
She looked to be a middle aged woman, clad in commoner’s clothes. “Um, can I help you?” I ask, rubbing the back of my neck, trying to act casual. She looks at me with surprise in her eyes. “Actually, I seemed to have lost my son in all the ruckus down in the town square. People can really be irrational these days.” She says, taking a step back to let my find my way out of my ‘hiding’ spot. 

“Yeah, they really can be.” I say, a little dumbfounded. Finally, there is someone in this town that agrees that maybe mobbing up on someone isn’t the best way to deal with things. “I just assume it’s because of the impending war and all of that.” She says, trying to make conversation. I just nod along, worried that I might let anything slip. I don’t know if this lady even recognizes me. She might not even know that I was the one with Rayla. Would she even care? 

“So, where do you think your son ran off to?” I ask, trying to drive the conversation towards something that actually can be of use. If I help this lady look for her lost kid, I can also take this time to look for Rayla and Zym. “Honestly, I don’t really know. He has always been one with an elaborate imagination, I just don’t want that to get himself into trouble.” She says, looking really defeated. 

“Well, how about we start back at the town square and we can work our way outwards.” I suggest, hopeful of her response. But with my proposal, her face changes from defeat to joy. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”

Now all I can hope is to find Rayla and Zym, without too many complications.


	4. Found and Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is ending up to be a lot longer than I was expecting lol.

It wasn’t us that found the child. Ironically, it was the child that found us.   
And I don’t know if finding him made me more or less worried. The small child ran into his mother’s arms, and of course the reunion was more than sweet. But I haven’t found a trace of Rayla or Zym. The only thing that I found that made me panic beyond relief is the small puddle of blood that stained the edge of the town square. But when we turned into the next street, there was nothing to be found. 

“Momma!” The small child exclaimed. The mother held her child in her arms. If only I could have been reunited with Rayla and Zym too. But they are still missing and I know I still need to find them. Maybe I should ask them to finally help him. But before I could the child started getting upset. What I thought were tears of joy being reunited by his mother, quickly turned into stifled sobs. 

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” The mother asked, worried why her son is hurting. It took a couple moments for him to respond, and while he was struggling to get words out, my concern starts to grow even more. “She needs help,” the little boy says in a small voice, tears continuing to stream down his face. “Who needs help?” the mother continues to ask. Pulling her son away from the hug so she could look directly face to face. 

“I need to find Callum.”

Wait. 

I’m Callum. 

“Rayla!” I say out loud to myself. The mother who was looking at her son with a confused face and then at me. I crouch next to the child and the mother. “I am Callum, did my friend Rayla send you?” I ask hopeful for answers. He gives a nod, the tears starting to stop. “Do you know where she is?” Relief comes in waves with the boy’s confirmation. 

Before actually telling us where she is, he bolts. He turns around in the direction in which he came and started sprinting. And as soon as he was found, he runs off again. But this time he wants us to follow him. It took several turns and after going down a few main roads, he starts to lead us into back alleys. 

But as the buildings are starting to get taller and the alleys getting darker, my mind starts to come up with more worries. Is Rayla okay? How did she meet this boy? Is he really leading us to help? Every shadow and bag of garbage start to look like a body. But that’s only in my mind, because the boy keeps running. 

The alleys get more and more narrow and I begin to worry that the boy is lost. What if he forgot where Rayla was? I mean, he is very young. But before I could vocalize my doubts, he stops running. There is Rayla, slumped up against the brick alley wall, her hood covering her face. I run the remaining distance to the boy and Rayla, and immediately crouch down to see if she is okay. Placing my hands on both of her shoulders, I try to help sit her up against the wall. 

“Rayla! Rayla, are you okay?” 

I refrain from shaking her, once I see the blood red dripping down her face. But repeating her name made me realize that she was unresponsive. “Let us help.” Them mother says, holding her clearly upset son in her arms. I look from them to Rayla, realizing that we may need their help more than I would like to admit. I just want to know if she will be okay. 

I nod, not trusting my own ability to speak. I pick Rayla up cautiously, carrying her bridal style. I know that these people are good people. But I really don’t think they know who we are, or who Rayla is and I don’t know if I will be able to conceal our identities for much longer. 

Especially since we still haven’t found Zym.


End file.
